Late Bronze Age ornaments. Bronze phalera or shield boss from Badeni. Diam. 14.4 cm.

One of two bronze stylized figurines from the Ulmi-Liteni hoard. Ht 11.4 cm.

Variants of the 'Villanovan-type' urn. 1 Tirpesti, north Moldavia, Precucuteni culture. 2 Lapus. 3 Red. 4 Kanev region. 5 Razkopanitsa. 6 Pecica. 7 Reci. 8 Kanev region. Forerunners occur in the early Chalcolithic Precucuteni culture and, again with bosses, in Otomani III and Suciu de Sus. Other Later Bronze Age variants appear in the Girla Mare culture at Balta Verde and Ostrovul Mare, in the Vatina culture and also at Reci, Tirgu Mure§ and Sarata-Monteoru. Under Gava-Holihrady influence the shape simplified to a hiconical body, often with a channelled hand at the division and a strongly everted mouth, found notably in the Voivodina, south-east Hungary, the Thracian Plain and Transylvania, but as far afield as Oloumouc in Moravia, Budapest, Mahala in its Holihrady phase and the Middle Dnieper. A related form with wide everted mouth, concave-profiled neck and rounded body, in the Carpatho-Balkans often decorated with incised, pitted or channelled garlands, also appears in the Voivodina, lower Danube valley, Transylvania, Tyasmin valley and Middle Dnieper.

Table comparing artefacts from settlement layers at Mahala. I Noua, II Early Holihrady (also called 'Thracian Hallstatt'), III Evolved Holihrady.

Noua clay bowl from Teius, west Transylvania.

Left: Clay bowl of the Plovdiv-Zimnicea group, from Gradeshnitsa. Ht 9-5 cm.

Right: Pottery from Babadag I.

Clay bowl from Troy VIIb 2, Ht (with handles) 20.5 cm. The identical shape, with a small central boss, is found at Babadag and Rousse.

Fragment of a clay bowl from Troy VIIb 2 with Pshenichevo-type, stamped tangented circle decoration. Ht (to rim) 8.2 cm.

Clay cup from Troy VIIb 2, with three small bosses. Ht (to rim) 7.5 cm. The peaked handle, is also found at Malko Kale.

Clay bowl with three horn bosses, from Troy VIIb 2. Ht (to rim) 24-25.8 cm. A similar vessel with more pronounced bosses is illustrated by Schliemann and parallels exist in the west Pontic coastal belt at Golyamo Delchevo and nearby Dulgopol.

Left: Bossed urn from Gabarevo, near Kazanluk. Ht 23 cm. Bossed ware, revived by Otomani III, Gava and Suciu de Sus cultures, had appeared as early as the Tiszapolgar and Precucuteni, the latter exhibiting developed horn bosses at Traian in central Moldavia.

Right: Late Bronze Age sherds from Pshenichevo showing punched, incised, pricked and channelled decoration.

Continuity of the tangented circle motif is shown by this 5th to 6th-century AD altar screen from Osenovo, near Varna. Ht 24.5 cm.

Stone firedog representing a horse, with Pshenichevo-type decoration, from Markovo, north of Chirpan. Ht 23 cm.

Clay firedog from Brno Obrany, Moravia. Max. Ht 23 cm, L. 47 cm. This firedog with a stylized representation of a ram was one of several found near hearths in the settlement.

A single-chamber megalithic tomb close to a small hill-fort near Harmanli, Haskovo district. Ht 1.45 m, L. 2.80 m.

A complex megalithic chamber tomb near Lalapasa. A passage with sides 1.20 and 1.60 m long leads to an antechamber and main tomb chamber, together 2.70 m long, with rounded holes approx. 30 cm wide in the dividing slabs. At entrance W. is 2.20 m and at rear 2.80 m. Ht 1.50 m.

Potsherds from megalithic chamber tombs at Studena and Sakartsi, Haskovo district, showing analogies with the Pshenichevo and Babadag - Troy VIIb 2 cultures. Ht of broken conical boss, from Studena, 4.5 cm.

Jug with channelled decoration from the earliest level at Malko Kale, dated to the 11th-9th century. Ht 20.5 cm.